Sunday, March 2, 2014

U.K. tenor saxophonist Gary Windo was born into the music industry. At age six, his journey began with him taking up the drums and the accordion. By age twelve he played guitar and at 17, mastered the tenor sax. He performed with a number of bands, including The Psychedelic Furs, NRBQ, as well as his own jazz band, the Gary Windo Quartet. He met an untimely death in 1992 from a massive asthma attack and now his music is being rediscovered with the newly released "Steam Radio Tapes." The new album was released late last year by Gonzo Multimedia and features Windo performing along side such great musicians as Pink Floyd's Nick Mason and Soft Machine's Robert Wyatt.

The nine-song release displays some of the best performances of Gary Windo, including the two-minute opener "Ginke." The song showcases a side of Windo in which he seems to be enjoying to be able to stretch his musical boundaries. Windo lends a hand to the King Crimson sound of "Come Into My Garden" and then moves on to a Zappa-esque "Night Train." Nick Mason lays the groundwork for the seventies sounding funk of "Night Train," then adds Wyatt's signature vocals to the more Floydian feel of "Is This The Time?" The album closes with an uptempo cover of the traditional folk song "Red River Valley" in which Windo leads the way.

To also celebrate the release of these newly discovered recordings, Gonzo Multimedia is re-releasing Windo's first two (long out of print) albums. His debut solo album "Dogface" was originally released in 1982 as he was one of the touring members of NRBQ. This album features Windo working alongside bands like NRBQ and The K9's on originals like "Puppy Kisses" and "The Husky." Windo seemed to have the most fun performing other people's songs like "Guard Duty," "Hound Dog" and "Baxter." The enjoyment of this record is summed up in the classic fifties sound of "That's All" featuring lead vocals by Al Anderson.

Gary Windo's second solo album "Deep Water" is where he came into is own as a band leader. On this release, he successfully fused jazz and rock without positioning his music into one certain category. It also features some of Windo's finest singing as in the opener "Deep Water" and in the modern rock of "Don't Bite Too Hard (You're Teeth Are Too Sharp)." The music of "Subway Love" fits the eighties decade perfectly, while "Breakfast In Bed" adds a Middle Eastern flair to his sound. The album closes with a pulsating, spot-on version of The Psychedelic Furs' "Sister Europe."